You Get What You Expect

  I've noticed something the last few times I've been on the water and I can't believe it took me so long to put it together. When strikes come they generally happen when I'm expecting good things to happen having that "anticipation" of the bite. I know I'm not special and this is nothing new to the human race. Ya see we get what we expect. Not always exactly what we want but what we dwell on and expect to happen. This Idea became painfully obvious on a recent trip to float a section of the Tallapoosa River. I was the only one of the group to not catch a fish the first few hours of the float and was starting to beat myself up and was expecting a skunkin'. After lunch I tied on a spinnerbait that I have a lot of confidence in and the first spot I fished was a lay down that just looked like it should be holding fish. After about five or six cast from different angles around this tree picked up this girl.

Now this fish is no record beater at 2.5lbs but she does help me prove my point. I had "expected" a bite from that spot and I had confidence in the lure I was using. Nothing special happened at lunch. We didn't burn incense or shake chicken bones over my kayak. We had a quick bite to eat and stretched our legs. One thing that did happen though is I decided I was gonna start catching fish and I expected it to happen. I went on to catch about eight more fish that day and learned a lesson that has to be taught to me over and over.
You get what you expect not what you want.